CLARENCE GANUS

Instruments: Vocals, Songwriter
Date of Birth: July 13, 1910
Place of Birth: Searles, Alabama

Clarence Powell Ganus was the third of four musically active sons born to gospel composer Walter Powell Ganus and his wife, Ada. As a country music act, Clarence recorded both solo and in duet with his oldest brother, Claude Patton Ganus. Clarence and Claude also joined with brothers Clyde Pattterson and Cecil Palmer (the youngest of the four) as the gospel-singing Ganus Brothers Quartet. Altogether the Ganuses recorded twenty-eight country/gospel sides for Columbia and Brunswick/Vocalion, from October 1928 to November 1930.

Clarence Ganus wrote and recorded "Take a 'Tater and Wait" in 1929, preceding Little Jimmy Dickens's hit version by twenty years. Interestingly, Ganus also wrote and recorded another well-known Dickens title the same year, "Sleeping at the Foot of the Bed," but this song is different from Dickens's.

After their recording years, the Ganuses operated various Alabama musical enterprises, such as W.P. Ganus & Sons Music Co., Ganus Brothers Extension Conservatory, and Ganus Brothers Sweetertone Instruments.

Bob Pinson